So I woke up this morning and really wanted to bake even though I can’t personally eat any of it. 😀 I’ve been itching to try something out of my new cookbook from the Prohibition Bakery. All the recipes are boozy and sound absolutely delectable! I love their slogan, please eat responsibly.

Unfortunately, I don’t have on hand all the ingredients to make any one of their recipes EXACTLY as written so right out of the gate I’m improvising. This recipe is going to be “loosely” based on their PINK LADY recipe on page 181 AND their CARAMEL APPLE recipe from page 277. I wasn’t thrilled with their PINK LADY frosting so I’m using the basic frosting from their CARAMEL APPLE but replacing the applejack brandy with the honey brandy I’m using to make the fruit puree.

GOOD MORNING sweet friends. Today’s a holiday for most, but other than no mail today it is just another Monday to me. 😀

I hope you had a great week. I was a bit under the weather and am still having quite a few issues with diet and the experimentation journey.🙁 So I watched a few movies Hallmark Valentine’s movies and did enjoy NASCAR this past weekend, especially Friday night’s truck race! I’m hoping this week is better than last.

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW & THE WEATHER OUTSIDE & WHAT I’M WEARING This is the latest on the weather, but it has been changing so fast I put literally no faith in it. Yesterday alone went from sun to rain and back again at least 3 times. We barely get to the highs before it starts nose diving to the lows. I’m dressing in layers these days. Levis, fluffy socks, long sleeve t-shirts and lightweight sweatshirt or hoodie unless I go outside and then I add a jacket.

GOOD MORNING friends – Happy Valentine’s Day week. I had a productive albeit slow week with the weather hindering much activity. First it snows and then it pours down rain the hardest I’ve ever seen or heard and then it snows again! I did get some tamales made, some canning done and these cute little boxes put together for the munchkins which I gave them over the weekend since they have multiple practices, games and activities every day after school this week including Valentine’s Day.

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW & THE WEATHER OUTSIDE & WHAT I’M WEARING It’s going to be another cold wet week HAHA 😀 I have on my favorite yoga pants, long sleeve t-shirt and fluffy socks since I have no intention of going outside as wet as it’s supposed to be! I’m not too invested in this (other than to know it will be some form of cold and wet) as it seems to change every couple hours 😀

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE apple raisin oatmeal, banana and green tea

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE/WEEKLY TO DO LIST & HOUSE PROJECTS/CRAFT BASKET/APPOINTMENTS

LAUNDRY… ALL caught up

LIVING AREAS… I need to dust, vacuum and neaten

KITCHEN… just did a DEEP clean after canning

YARD… nothing

BLOG… not much this week

CRAFTS/PROJECTS… still working on a new idea or two

APPOINTMENTS… just a couple

TO DO… a few phone calls and paperwork

SOMETHING INTERESTING I WATCHED We rented a couple Netflix movies over the cold, wet weekend, but nothing was super extraordinary except Hunter Killer. Some of the previews did look REALLY good though.

I’M READING Ava Miles The Patchwork Quilt of Happiness (Dare River Book 6)

WHAT IS ON THE DVR, I LIKE OR ON THE LIST TO WATCH Nothing much, but some cooking shows and a couple of Hallmark Valentine movies.

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA Yesterday was SUPER cold, but almost sunny so we did a little drive and found a few nice pictures like the old barn, neat tree and weird donkey, but the fighting turkeys and peacocks were REALLY interesting near my favorite bridge.

They were NOT happy with each other and it turned into an all out brawl before it was over! Then they chased each other over the bridge before acting like long lost friends again!

For the past couple of years I have tried MANY of the more reliable and popular Dinner Home Delivery services out there – Blue Apron, Home Chef, Hello Fresh, Gobble… At first it seemed like a great idea while we were still working on A House From Hell. I had an offer emailed from a friend for a nice discount to give Blue Apron a try… Long story short the recipes started to repeat themselves, the selection of recipes dwindled to where I was skipping more weeks than I was ordering and the issues that required customer service became more and more while the service became slower and slower while also less accommodating. I even encountered a customer service line that was outsourced to somewhere that English was not their first language and the communication barrier was unbelievable!

Well, all I can say after this last box is NO MORE!!! Gobble is the last one we tried and I was SORELY DISAPPOINTED! There was a HUGE discount to give them a try and I STILL overpaid for what arrived. NOT only were many of the ingredients NOT fresh, many were also pre-prepared and not well at that! The original goal was to save time and money while trying some new and innovative recipes, but since that is NOT the end result I’ve cancelled all the services and will be back to doing my own planning and shopping.

This seemed like a good time to re-run this section on how I menu plan and save money while doing it.

There is more to menu planning than just deciding what to make for dinner, at least for the average family. We’re a military family used to getting paid once a month and trying to make it last. So for me, menu planning also encompasses recipe scouring, coupon clipping (we love to read the Sunday papers and have coffee. One of the things I always go for first is the coupons to see what I can save for us – hubby always laughs when I get excited at a large coupon for something already on the list – LOL), sale ad reading and logical common sense planning. I do participate in Menu Plan Monday, but I actually prepare my menu for the entire month all at once and then just break it up for posting. A little organization goes a long way.

I start the last week of the previous month with checking out what I already have in the freezer inventory and then the ads for my local markets for the upcoming week. I see what meats will be going on sale and then scour my recipe file for recipes to match. One of the biggest things I do to help not only with cost of ingredients, but also waste is to make sure that I back recipes up to each other that use similar ingredients that I can buy in bulk.

For example if a recipe calls for half an onion for Monday night’s recipe, I make sure Tuesday night’s recipe uses the other half. I also know which meals we’ll probably have leftovers for so I plan to either freeze part of it for a future meal or plan a C.O.R.N. (clean out refrigerator night) within my plan if there is only going to be a little of this and that leftover. I write my list and then I match up the coupons for whatever staples (flour, sugar, eggs, butter, etc…) I need and then the luxuries if there is room within the budget. If there is a really good sale I buy in super bulk for the following month also. Now I know this sounds like a lot of work, but the whole process takes less than an hour and then it’s done for the month.

It seems I have every scrap of a recipe I have ever saved as well as many of my grandma’s too. It’s like an obsession with me. If a recipe sounds good in a magazine, I figure I can make it better based on my family’s likes and dislikes and tuck it away to try and manipulate at a later date. I recently decided it was time to clean-up this mess.

I found an old metal LP file box at a garage sale for 50 cents and dressed it up a bit so it didn’t look like a trash bin on my kitchen counter. (it was a beat up lime green with stickers everywhere). I have written 2 family reunion cook books in the past which helped some with eliminating the scraps of paper and I’m also in the midst of writing a Tastebook to use as family Christmas gifts that is helping to clean up this mess on a permanent basis.

I have a perpetual list on the counter and every time we use something or run out of something, everyone is trained (finally) to list whatever they used or ran out of on an ongoing basis.

We keep a pretty concise calendar with everyone’s activities, appointments, meetings and such on it. I also write what we will be eating on each day so they’ll know what to expect. If for some reason we have to cancel a night I will rearrange the week so that the meal actually canceled is one using something from the freezer, not the fresh ingredients I’ve already purchased. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu planned ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home.

I originally wrote this post years ago, but nothing has changed – I still do things exactly the same.

I start with LARGE bulk packs of meat. I then break them down by size and meat right down to cutting certain recipes into bite sized pieces. Then I wrap them in freezer paper because I really hate freezer burn! And I package them into pre-labeled ziploc bags for the freezer.

I think I’m almost down to 2½ sides…and I’m FINALLY taking back my life… actually CHASING MY LIFE.

IT IS WHAT IT IS!

I'll ALWAYS be 3 Sides of Crazy cooking in OUR Krazy Kitchen at my Savory Kitchen Table and ALWAYS Eating on the Good China but counting down to normal ~ WHATEVER THAT IS!

I love to cook, read, write, quilt, craft, go antiquing, amateur photography and to learn new things. I’m a Jill of many trades & always have more interests and desires than I have time. LOL I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I love being a homemaker and keeping my family healthy and happy.

As a Christian woman I believe life is all about change and that learning to cope with it as it happens will help you through life. I believe in Murphy’s Law, the Domino Effect, Payback’s a Bitch, and Karma. I also believe that Pay It Forward and living by the Golden Rule go a long way to keep the former from happening to begin with. I believe everything happens for a reason and that life is one big adventure.

I try to see life through rose colored glasses and be as tolerant as possible. My glass is always half full. I am an optimist, extremely positive minded and usually a really upbeat person so anything goes within reason.

I especially love to cook and develop new recipes. I have written a couple of cookbooks for family reunions that I’m working on getting published and have new cook books in the works.